3.—(1) The Department shall provide and maintain standards, which shall be known as Northern Ireland local standards, of all the meaures set out in Parts I and IV of Schedule 1 other than capacity measures of more than[F1 8 pints] or ten litres, and of all the weights set out in Part V of Schedule 1.
(2) Northern Ireland local standards shall be of such material and form as the Department may determine; and such a standard of any linear or capacity measure may—
(a)be provided either as a separate standard or by means of divisions marked on a standard of a larger measure; and
(b)either be marked in whole or in part with subdivisions representing any smaller unit of measurement or multiples or fractions of such a unit or have no such markings;
as the Department may direct.
(3) Subject to section 2(1) of the[F2 Act of 1985], which provides that the United Kingdom primary standards are the standards by reference to which, in the United Kingdom, all other standards of the yard, pound, metre and kilogramme and of any other unit of measurement derived wholly or partly therefrom, are to be maintained, the Department shall make such arrangements as appear to it to be appropriate for the purpose of having the value or values of every article proposed to be used as a Northern Ireland local standard determined or, as the case may be, re-determined under paragraph (4), and such arrangements may provide for the submission of any such article to the Secretary of State for testing as to accuracy and for report under section 6 of the[F2 Act of 1985].
(4) Every Northern Ireland local standard, while it remains in use, shall have its value or values re-determined at intervals not exceeding—
(a)five years, in the case of a standard of a weight; or
(b)ten years, in the case of a standard of a measure.
(5) In any proceedings under this Order, a certificate of the Department as to the validity of any Northern Ireland local standard shall be evidence of the facts stated in that behalf in the certificate.
F1SR 1995/226